SB19 bares who they really are in ‘PAGTATAG!’ docu

For a Pinoy music act that first exploded through new media, SB19 has taken a traditional route with their groundbreaking documentary, “PAGTATAG!” — bringing it to the big screen. With the over 100 cinemas showing the film as of this writing, the decision couldn’t be any more fitting.

Directed by Jed Regala, the docu particularly captures SB19’s Pablo, Stell, Ken, Josh and Justin’s highs, even the lows and the many lessons in between while hitting the road for the “PAGTATAG!” world tour that kicked off in 2023.

Direk Jed said, “What I wanted to show is a long-form piece that feels refreshing because nowadays, content is mostly bite-sized or short. But what I’ve learned is that a story can keep developing, so you need to take the time to complete it and bring it full circle.

“SB19 deserves something like this. It could have been just a world tour from start to finish and then done, but there’s so much more to it.”

For Pablo, watching a film inside a cinema with the audience feels really different and special. “What better way to showcase a documentary than in a theatrical way?” he said. “We want people to understand our story, feel the sound, and see our emotions on screen. That’s why we chose to present it this way.”

“PAGTATAG!” is the second installment of their EP trilogy that began with “PAGSIBOL.”

A year ago, SB19 described “PAGTATAG!” to this paper as a reflection of how they’ve become a solid and steady group all set to enter the “danger zone.” At that time of the interview, it wasn’t hard to see that one of the danger zones they were venturing into was self-management under a company that the members established themselves, 1Z Entertainment.

Pablo, who is also 1Z’s CEO, told us then: “Yung comfort zone natin, that’s one of our danger zones. (If we’re going to stay in our) comfort zone, we would never grow. We have to try different things we’re not comfortable with or (we) don’t know about if we want to grow as a person.”

“We’re opening ourselves to the world, we’re opening ourselves to each and everyone kaya mas harmonize and mas malawak po yung pag-unawa namin sa mundo.”

That “opening up to the world” promise, literally and figuratively, is in full view